ifted out and carried below, to be laid in a row to wait the
doctor and his assistant make their first rapid examination, to apply
tourniquets and bandaged pads to the most serious injuries.

"Good heavens, Mr Brooke, what a condition you are in! The doctor must
take you first."

"Oh no, sir," said the young lieutenant quietly. "I'm not very bad; a
cut from a heavy sword through my cap. It has stopped bleeding. My
hands are a little bruised."

"But how was this?"

"As we advanced to board, they threw quite a volley of stink-pots
fizzing away into us. I burned myself a little with them."

"Chucking 'em overboard, sir," cried the boatswain. "Splendid it was."

"Nonsense!" cried Mr Brooke. "You threw ever so many. But it was hot
work, sir."

"Hot! it is horrible. How many prisoners have you there?"

"Eighteen, sir; the survivors escaped."

"But you shouldn't have fired the junks, man," said the captain testily.
"There may have been wounded on board."

"Yes, sir," said Mr Brooke, with his brow puckering; "wounded and dead
there were, I daresay, thirty; but the enemy set fire to their vessels
themselves before they leaped overboard, and it was impossible to save
them: they burned like resin. We saved all we could."

"I beg your pardon; I might have known," cried the captain warmly.
"Come to my cabin. Mr Reardon, be careful with those prisoners; they
are savage brutes."

"Enough to make 'em, Gnat. Look! What a shame!"

I looked, but I could not see any reason for Smith's remark.

"Beg pardon, sir," growled one of the men, who had a bandage round his
arm; "you wouldn't ha' said so if you'd been there. They was all alike.
The junk we took was burning like fat in a frying-pan, and me and my
mate see one o' them chaps going to be roasted, and made a run for it
and hauled him away--singed my beard, it did; look, sir."

Half of his beard was burned off, and his cheek scorched.

"Then my mate gets hold of his legs, and I was stooping to get my fists
under his chest, when he whips his knife into my arm 'fore I knowed what
he was up to. But we saved him all the same."

"Here," cried Mr Reardon, as the marines descended from the third boat,
and stood at attention in two parties facing each other; "who was
answerable for this? Why, it is an outrage. Brutal!"

"S'pose it was my doing, sir," said the boatswain, touching his cap;
"but I asked leave of Mr Brooke first, and he said yes."

"What, to tie